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The Atlas 2000 Survey - a review of TL60
records of Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis, Solomon's Seal Polygonatum multiflorum and
the beautiful Wood Horsetail Equisetum sylvaticum.
Elsewhere in the area, copses arc few and far between. Nearly all sport a few spring flowers such as
Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage Chrysoplenium oppositifolium, Moschatel Adoxa moschatellina.
Wood Speedwell Veronica montana and Common Twayblade Listera ovata but in high summer are
dank and creepy jungles of overgrown coppice where sunlight seldom penetrates, the epitome of the
Wild Wood in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Mr Grahame, alas, has had a bad press
of late. In one recent article he was described as ageist, sexist, elitist and a misogynist. Doubtless
some silly old bat of a washerwoman wrote that! Still, foibles apart, no one has better described the
joys of loitering on river banks in midsummer. I hate to think what he would have to say about the
River Wid nowadays. Although Ratty still survives in good numbers his home has been dredged and
the banks steepened, so that for much of its length it resembles a drainage ditch more than a river;
also, excess fertilisers from the adjoining fields filter into it and by midsummer have helped create
an eight foot high wall of Hemlock Conium maculatum, Greater Willowherb Epilobium hirsutum,
Nettles Urtica dioica, Cleavers Galium aparine Lesser Burdock Arctium minus and other coarse
species that is almost impenetrable without the use of a machete! The only way to survey the river at
this season is to paddle in it. It is perhaps an inevitable consequence of middle age that whereas,
aged eleven, all you can think about when paddling is having fun, at the age of fifty-one all you can
think about is Weill's Disease! However, I have to date survived these aquatic diversions and in the
process discovered that a few of the more delicate riverside plants continue to survive in small
numbers. The likes of Water Chickweed Myosoton aquaticum, Skullcap Scutellaria galericulata.
Yellow Loosestrife Lysimachia, vulgaris. Marsh Woundwort Stachys palustris, Yellow Water Lily
Nupha lutea, Common Club Rush Schoenplectus lacustris and Unbranched Bur Reed Sparganium
emersum arc all plants associated with the Wid while both Purple Loosestrife Lythrum salicaria and
Indian Balsam Impatiens glandulifera are common along the short stretch of River Chelmer in the
northeast corner. The various bridges can also be good for plants, one at Widford supporting large
numbers of Black Spleenwort Asplenium adiantum-nigrum and a single Wall Rue A. ruta-muraria
while a clump of Pepper Saxifrage Silaum silaus growing nearby proved to be the only one of its
kind remaining in TL60. It is the smaller streams that hold the greatest abundance of water plants,
though. Parts of the Roxwell Brook are choc-a-bloc with the likes of Water Figwort Scrophularia
auriculata, Water Cress Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum. Pool's Watercress Apium nodiflorum, Hemp
Agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum, Brooklime Veronica, beccabunga, Meadowsweet Filipendula
ulmaria and Reed Canary Grass Phalaris arundinacea but still have room for the odd patch of
Water Forget-me-Not Myosotis scoipioides, Blue Water Speedwell Veronica anagallis-aquatica,
Small-flowered Willowherb Epilobium roseum, Broad-leaved Pondweed Potamogaton natans and
even a few clumps of Galingale Cyperus longus.
In the current debate on bloodsports I do not have an axe to grind on behalf of either the pursuers or
the pursued although I do feel that anyone who is prepared to sit on a huntsman's horse, let alone
jump a fence on one, requires a lot of bottle. They seem a long way off the ground to me! Also, there
is no avoiding the fact that a well managed shooting estate can have great benefits for wildlife as
many of the habitats that conservationists wish to preserve are maintained here as part of a working
environment rather than as museum pieces, which is often the case on nature reserves. The game
cover planted on such farms is often fun to botanise, containing such species as Phacel ia Phacelia
tanacetifolia, Buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum, Cockspur Echinochloa crusgali, White Mustard
Sinapsis album and even Large Trefoil Trifolium aureum and Cornflower Centaurea cyanus.
The same situation is true of angling. Of the 174 ponds depicted on the 1876 six inch to one mile
Ordnance Survey map of Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish only eighteen now support a worthwhile
flora, the remainder having either been lost to building work or to neglect. All eighteen are currently
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)